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Brian Lilley, Parliamentary Bureau

Jan 29, 2014

, Last Updated: 5:46 PM ET

OTTAWA - More Canadians now favour privatizing CBC, Canada Post and Via Rail than favour keeping the Crown corporations in public hands.

A poll of 1,996 Canadians by Abacus Data found that 45% of those surveyed support or strongly support selling CBC compared to 34% who opposed the move, while 21% were undecided. Support for selling Canada Post was slightly higher with 47% backing a sale and 38% opposed. Via Rail had the highest level of support for privatization with 53% agreeing that the rail service should be sold off.

Conservative voters were most likely to support privatization overall but they were not alone. A majority of Liberal and NDP voters backed privatizing Via Rail, 57% and 51% respectively. When it came to the postal service 58% of Conservatives agreed with privatization, 51% of Liberals and just 42% of New Democrats.